Kara Withee has recently joined Jerry Ballard and Associates as a Customer Service Representative and Sales Associate for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC).  With over twelve years of customer service experience, Kara is a graduate of the University of Texas, El Paso with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature and a Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from San Diego State University.

Prior to joining our agency, Kara taught high school English and Elementary Spanish in both the public and private school sectors.  She relocated to Morehead City, NC in support of her husband’s military career and now resides there with her three sons, her daughter, a Golden Retriever and a house cat.  In her spare time, Kara enjoys reading, paddle boarding and spending time with her children.  For all your Blue Advantage, Blue Value, Blue Select and Dental Blue needs, Kara brings both personable and professional assistance to the health care industry and the residents of North Carolina and she is pleased to offer her service expertise to help you navigate through the Marketplace to determine subsidy eligibility and to guide you in choosing the best Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina plans for you and your family.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

Apply for your Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina coverage today if you have a Qualified Life Event that enables you to enroll during the Special Enrollment Period.  Below we have outlined some examples of these qualified life events.  To generate your quote and get started click here.  BCBSNC offers an array of health insurance plans that will fit any budget and are all ACA compliant.

Marriage, having a baby, adopting a child or placing a child for adoption or foster care, moving outside your insurer’s coverage area, gaining citizenship, leaving incarceration.
Gaining status as member of an Indian tribe. Members of federally recognized Indian tribes can sign up for or change plans once per month throughout the year.
For people already enrolled in Marketplace coverage: Having a change in income or household status that affects eligibility for premium tax credits or cost-sharing reductions
 Losing other health coverage due to losing job-based coverage, divorce, the end of an individual policy plan year in 2014, COBRA expiration, aging off a parent’s plan, losing eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP, and similar circumstances. Important: Voluntarily ending coverage doesn’t qualify you for a special enrollment period. Neither does losing coverage that doesn’t qualify as minimum essential coverage.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

Posted April 14, 2014 – Blue Cross Blue Shield- Health Care Reform Blog

By: James LaCorte

Where does my health insurance premium really go? Health insurance customers often ask a simple question about the premium they pay every month:

Where does my premium dollar go? They’re usually not asking for a quick tutorial on how insurance works: Most people understand that everyone pays into a pool, and only those who need medical care take money out in the form of health care claims. What many of these folks really are asking is how much of that money actually pays for health care and how much goes toward running an insurance company — or toward profits.  Fair question.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) paid $5 billion in claims in 2013. Recently we announced that we spent almost 86 cents of every premium dollar paying for our customers’ health care – doctor visits, surgery, tests, medicine, eyeglasses, etc.

Our non-medical spending largely goes toward customer service and technology. We are also a full-taxed company. In 2013, we paid out more than $100 million in local, state and federal taxes.

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Call today and go over questions about Open Enrollment vs Special Enrollment so you do not lose the opportunity to acquire coverage.  To enroll in a Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina health plan, outside of the annual enrollment period, you must qualify under the Special Enrollment guidelines set out below.  Special circumstances for enrolling outside of the open enrollment period include:

Loss of minimum coverage (employer coverage, government plans, etc.)

Adding a dependent through birth

Adoption or marriage

Gaining citizenshipEnrollment/non-enrollment errors by the federal Marketplace or the US Department of Health and Human Services

Qualified health plan violates the material provision of its contract with the individual

Newly eligible for a subsidy or a change in the amount of subsidy you are eligible for

Moving to a new state

American Indian/Alaska Native status (may change once a month)Other exceptional circumstances

In 2014, the Affordable Care Act mandates that all taxpayers purchase health insurance or pay a penalty on their tax returns. The penalty will increase every year until 2016.  Get your Free Rate Quote and apply for your coverage today through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and avoid these penalties.

The Affordable Care Act does a lot to boost access to preventive services and encourage consumers to use them. Health care reform also requires that many preventive services be provided at no cost to the consumer, such as colonoscopies and contraceptive and many more services.  Click on the link to view all services that is outlined by BCBSNC.

Regular preventive care can help you stay in better overall health.  Make sure you understand how your preventive care benefits work, and be sure to take advantage of them.

Preventive care services are generally covered at 100 percent of the allowed amount when they meet the following conditions:  The service is delivered by an in-network provider;  The service is performed in an in-network, office-based setting or   stand-alone clinic and filed as an office visit;  The service is received only once per benefit period, and the service does not include any additional procedures.  Get your Free Rate Quote today.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

Health Savings Account Contributions amounts are updated each year by the federal government to account for inflation. For 2014, the maximum annual contribution is $3,300 for an individual (up $50 from 2013), and $6,550 for a family (up $100 from 2013).    In 2014, those age 55 or older can contribute an additional $1,000 above the maximum to their HSA.

Blue Options HSA is a new way to pay for health care. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has taken their most popular plan design’s PPO network and paired it with a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and a health savings account (HSA), which has similar characteristics to a 401(k) or an IRA but for qualified medical expenses. Blue Options HSA offers many advantages.  Get your Free Rate Quote for this plan today and call our office so we can go over the benefits and process to apply and enroll.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

Enrolling in a Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina plan is simple and easy. You can enroll online 24/7.

When you get your free, no-obligation rate quote, we will help you estimate any advance premium tax credit (subsidy) or cost-sharing reduction you may be eligible for through the government.  Your quote will outline the estimated subsidy so you can see the reduced rate.

Next Step: Register through your free rate quote, click the link in your quote to start your healthcare.gov application process.  We will help you select a plan and guide you through the entire process.  Once your subsidy application is completed, we will guide you through the payment process and provide you the payment coupon so you can mail your payment to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to guarantee your coverage starts on the effective date you requested.

NOT APPLYING FOR A SUBSIDY.  Apply today and start coverage immediately.  YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO TO THE MARKETPLACE and we can walk you through these very simple and easy steps.

You only have a limited time to enroll. The annual enrollment period ends 3/31/2014.   As of today, you will have the option for an April 1st or May 1st effective date.  Unless special circumstances apply, you will not have the opportunity to enroll again until  the next Open Enrollment starting Nov 2014 for coverage that starts 1/1/2015. That means you cannot wait for a medical need to enroll.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

For In-Network Providers: North Carolina providers or specialists in the BCBSNC network will request prior review for you. You may want to check with your health care provider to make sure that prior review was obtained before you have the service or procedure in question.

For Out-of-Network Providers:  You are responsible for ensuring that out-of-network doctors have requested prior review and certification from BCBSNC before the service is performed. The physician or her office should request the review from BCBSNC. This also applies to BlueCard providers (out of state providers who contract with another Blue Cross Blue Shield plan) outside of North Carolina. Your Benefit Booklet has more information about prior review and certification that is specific to your policy. (more…)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), has issued the following statement about family coverage for married same-sex couples and domestic partners. “In order to ensure that our technology was ready for the Affordable Care Act, our company chose to postpone a number of product updates until 2015. One of these was to begin making family coverage available to same-sex married couples and domestic partners (same-sex or opposite-sex) in our ACA-approved plans.We should have more thoughtfully considered this decision, with full appreciation of the impact it would have on same-sex married couples and domestic partners. We’re sorry we failed to do so. Our employees have worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Insurance over the past week to update our plans in order to make family coverage available sooner. Starting Monday, same-sex married couples and anyone in a domestic partnership may purchase new family coverage on or off the Exchange for an effective date of March 1.  Domestic partners and same-sex married couples who enrolled separately on ACA plans can convert them into family plans retroactive to their original effective date.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). It would be our pleasure to help you navigate through the Health Care Reform changes in accordance with the new regulations of Obama care. Call us for details.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) announced today that they have filed the necessary documents with the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) to allow most of its non-grandfathered individual customers to keep their current health plans for another year. Customers with Blue Advantage, Blue Advantage Saver, Blue Value and Blue Options HSA policies whose plans were in place as of Oct. 1, 2013 will be eligible to renew their plans.

The NCDOI will be responsible for reviewing and approving rates for these renewed plans. BCBSNC submitted a rate increase of 16.4 percent for its Blue Advantage plans; 22 percent for Blue Value and 23.6 percent for its Blue Saver and Blue Options HSA plans. 2014 plan premiums reflect changes in the cost of care for all non-grandfathered customers with individual BCBSNC plans. This includes the price of care as well as the quantity of services used by this pool of customers. New taxes and fees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – which also apply to these plans – also contribute to the increase.

BCBSNC expects to mail revised renewal notices to eligible customers by Dec. 1. These customers will be automatically renewed in their 2013 plan for another year or may choose an ACA-compliant plan, which might come with additional benefits and a subsidy.

Renewing 2013 plans will delay some of the more challenging consumer impacts of the ACA for another year and alleviate concerns of consumers who have had difficulty accessing the Exchange. Non-grandfathered customers will need to move to ACA-compliant plans for 2015.

This information was released by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina 11/19/13.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). Call us for details.

01 Aug 2013- BCBSNC Media Center

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) announced today that it will host the 2013 dotBlue conference. The annual symposium focuses on using the latest digital and web strategies to address the health insurance industry’s most pressing challenges. This year’s conference, titled Connecting the Dots, will focus on helping consumers understand and navigate health care reform.

The conference will take place at BCBSNC’s Durham campus from Oct. 23-25, 2013. Conference attendance is limited to Blue Cross Blue Shield Plan professionals.

Participating Blue Plans will be invited to present on relevant topics of their choice. In addition, attendees will participate in presentations about using the latest in web design and digital technology to address the changes coming to health insurance in 2014, including:

• Pursuit of the Virtuous Quantified Life
  • Presented by Robert D. Furberg, senior clinical informaticist at RTI International’s Center for the Advancement of Health Information Technology (more…)